...need a conflict..

[poehalcho]

oke we have to do stupid projects about conflict zones. it has to be a conflict that is happening at this moment, not somewhere in 1973 or something.

anyway do you guys have any ideas. it can't be iran, afganistan or one of those, they're allready taken. i'd preffer a conflict a bit more unique anyway. there has t be actuall violence

(for the dutch people, to be a bit more precise it has to be a 'brandhaard' which i think is best trancelated to conflict)

[Reise]

There's always stuff going on in Africa. People getting killed, warlords taking everyone's food, stuff like that. Search google or something.

[mosiac]

africa is still in a civil war i think

[dom]

Atheists being prosecuted by American Fundamentlists/

[poehalcho]

be a little more specific please

[Jstar1]

genocide in darfur perhaps?

[Aby]

Well at the trailer park yesterday JimBob punched MarySue in the ovaries.. Or "eggsacks"

You could do the ongoing influence of the KKK in southern american states.

Or saudi arabia, its a country that hates itself. Just google it and conflict, you'll find more than enough info.

Alternately, research what happened in Apartheid

[mosiac]

be a little more specific please

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=af ... gle+Search
seriously, do you not know how to use a search engine?

[Casey613]

Buddy I think you have a lot of material to work with..

[poehalcho]

darfur sounds fine, i judt hope it wasn't taken yet...

[Aby]

Buddy I think you have a lot of material to work with..

[poehalcho]

be a little more specific please

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=af ... gle+Search
seriously, do you not know how to use a search engine?

i know how to use it, i just don't know anything specific to search for. i'm really bad when it comes to these kind of things: i didn't know there was a war in joegoslavia, while i lived pretty much next to it's border for over 5 years (we need an emoticon with a drip here plz)

[Redskin350]

free jena 6

[dom]

free jena 6

+1

Black kids should have the right to gang beat a white kid for hereditary ignorance.

[crazyskwrls]

i think Darfur crisis, Pakistan election, Taiwan-China crisis are good ones

[Cruor]

africa is still in a civil war i think

Because Africa is a country...

On topic: Try the protests in Myanmar.

[HOLLAstir]

free jena 6

+1

Black kids should have the right to gang beat a white kid for hereditary ignorance.

Agreed, Did you see when the kid and his parents were on Dr.Phil? Unbelievable

[mosiac]

africa is still in a civil war i think

Because Africa is a country...

On topic: Try the protests in Myanmar.

i mean a war where they're fighting themselves.

[Silkroad]

africa is still in a civil war i think

Because Africa is a country...

On topic: Try the protests in Myanmar.

i mean a war where they're fighting themselves.

and i guess when Germany was bombing Britain that was civil war as well huh?

[mosiac]

of course it was

[Midori]

PKK and turkey. really dude, even though it's iraq, you've got a pretty good story right there

[dom]

africa is still in a civil war i think

Because Africa is a country...

On topic: Try the protests in Myanmar.

In many African countries, there are on going civil wars. He might of misunderstood but his suggestion was still valid.

[mosiac]

africa is still in a civil war i think

Because Africa is a country...

On topic: Try the protests in Myanmar.

In many African countries, there are on going civil wars. He might of misunderstood but his suggestion was still valid.

basically. last I read about news in africa the majority of the countries were in civil war, but that wasn't too recent.

[XemnasXD]

free jena 6

+1

Black kids should have the right to gang beat a white kid for hereditary ignorance.

**** you dom whens the last time you heard a white kid getting sent to prison for an after school fight. I guess it doesn't matter that a group of white kids beat a up a black student during the same week and charges were never filed. Or that a guy can pull out a shotgun on a group of kids. i don't see how the mods keep ignoring your blatant racism....

[Dystopia]

oke we have to do stupid projects about conflict zones. it has to be a conflict that is happening at this moment, not somewhere in 1973 or something.

anyway do you guys have any ideas. it can't be iran, afganistan or one of those, they're allready taken. i'd preffer a conflict a bit more unique anyway. there has t be actuall violence

(for the dutch people, to be a bit more precise it has to be a 'brandhaard' which i think is best trancelated to conflict)

the one with the monks, i forget

[Cruor]

the one with the monks, i forget

That would be Myanmar/Burma.

[Dystopia]

the one with the monks, i forget

That would be Myanmar/Burma.

Im not sure i hear little snippets of it between the beats of music during civics class

[Redskin350]

free jena 6

+1

Black kids should have the right to gang beat a white kid for hereditary ignorance.

**** you dom whens the last time you heard a white kid getting sent to prison for an after school fight. I guess it doesn't matter that a group of white kids beat a up a black student during the same week and charges were never filed. Or that a guy can pull out a shotgun on a group of kids. i don't see how the mods keep ignoring your blatant racism....

Well Dom let me drop some knowledge for you because I feel you need it....

First Here is the Dr. Phil video XemnasXD was talking about:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=NjFN_jA1JPk
http://youtube.com/watch?v=yb-J21OIlGQ
http://youtube.com/watch?v=7UzChvGeVIM
http://youtube.com/watch?v=XSG6CJW3Aag
http://youtube.com/watch?v=sFo-yTi0L5I
http://youtube.com/watch?v=iOnhB2AP2OI
http://youtube.com/watch?v=NxoAFWxioUs
http://youtube.com/watch?v=fHXot1w9VDY

So Dom let me tell you what really happened because it seems to me you don't understand what really happened at Jena. The issue is that Mychael Bell and 5 other students were arrested for allegedly "jumping" a white guy named Justin Barker because they said he was yelling out racial remarks. Now I don't condone the people jumping Justin but I do want to point out that in this town a lot of racial segregation has been happening and maybe you haven't experienced racism before so you don't understand the severity of it but thats just my opinion. Anyways prior to this incident a black student asked permission from the school administrators to be able to sit under the tree and the school officials told them they were able to sit under the tree. Well unfortunately three white students hung nooses under the tree THE NEXT DAY. Now there are tons of incidents like and I will post them later but another one off the top of my head is that there was an altercation between a white student and a black student at Jena, then the white student went to his truck and got a shotgun and the black student wrestled the gun away from the white person and gave it to the police. What did the police do? They arrested the black student for STEALING THE SHOTGUN and the white student did not receive any charges. Well back to the issue (sorry about bouncing around) Now they charged Mychael Bell with attempt of murder and sent to jail as a 16 year old. The issue is that they charged him with an attempt of murder yet Justin Barker was only in the hospital for 2 - 3 hours...to me that is not murder but I mean I guess its about the severity of the wounds but nonetheless that to me is ridiculous and it is up for you to decide wether or not this trial is about racism wether if a 6 white men jumped a black man would the white people got to jail? Now Dom just read this and think about wether or not you think Jena was about 'Black kids should have the right to gang beat a white kid for hereditary ignorance."


Oh and further information about this I got on facebook:
Injustice in Jena, Louisiana as Nooses Hang from the White Tree
By Bill Quigley
Published on: July 10, 2007

In a small still mostly segregated section of rural Louisiana, an all white jury heard a series of white witnesses called by a white prosecutor testify in a courtroom overseen by a white judge in a trial of a fight at the local high school where a white student who had been making racial taunts was hit by black students. The fight was the culmination of a series of racial incidents starting when whites responded to black students sitting under the “white tree” at their school by hanging three nooses from the tree. The white jury and white prosecutor and all white supporters of the white victim were all on one side of the courtroom. The black defendant, 17-year-old Mychal Bell, and his supporters were on the other. The jury quickly convicted Mychal Bell of two felonies - aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery. Bell, who was a 16-year-old sophomore football star at the time he was arrested, faces up to 22 years in prison. Five other black youths await similar trials on attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy charges.

Yes, you read that correctly. The rest of the story, which is being reported across the world in papers in China, France and England, is just as chilling.

The trouble started under “the white tree” in front of Jena High School. The “white tree” is where the white students, 80% of the student body, would always sit during school breaks.

In September 2006, a black student at Jena high school asked permission from school administrators to sit under the “white tree.” School officials advised them to sit wherever they wanted. They did.

The next day, three nooses, in the school colors, were hanging from the “white tree.” The message was clear. “Those nooses meant the KKK, they meant ‘*****, we’re going to kill you, we’re going to hang you till you die,’” Casteptla Bailey, mom of one of the students, told the London Observer.

The Jena high school principal found that three white students were responsible and recommended expulsion. The white superintendent of schools over-ruled the principal and gave the students a three day suspension saying that the nooses were just a youthful stunt. “Adolescents play pranks,” the superintendent told the Chicago Tribune, “I don’t think it was a threat against anybody.”

The African-American community was hurt and upset. “Hanging those nooses was a hate crime, plain and simple,” according to Tracy Bowens, mother of students at Jena High.

But blacks in this area of Louisiana have little political power. The ten person all-male government of the parish has one African-American member. The nine member all-male school board has one African American member. (A phone caller to the local school board trying to find out the racial makeup of the school board was told there was one “colored” member of the board). There is one black police officer in Jena and two black public school teachers.

Jena, with a population of less than 3000, is the largest town in the parish (county) seat of LaSalle Parish, Louisiana. There are about 350 African Americans in the town. LaSalle has a population of just over 14,000 people - 12% African-American.

This is solid Bush and David Duke Country - GWB won LaSalle Parish 4 to 1 in the last two elections; Duke carried a majority of the white vote when he ran for Governor of Louisiana. Families earn about 60% of the national average. The Census Bureau reports that less than 10% of the businesses in LaSalle Parish are black owned.

Jena is the site of the infamous Juvenile Correctional Center for Youth that was forced to close its doors in 2000, only two years after opening, due to widespread brutality and racism including the choking of juveniles by guards after the youth met with a lawyer. The U.S. Department of Justice sued the private prison amid complaints that guards paid inmates to fight each other and laughed when teens tried to commit suicide.

Black students decided to resist and organized a sit-in under the “white tree” at the school to protest the light suspensions given to the noose-hanging white students.

The white District Attorney then came to Jena High with law enforcement officers to address a school assembly. According to testimony in a later motion in court, the DA reportedly threatened the black-protesting students saying that if they didn't stop making a fuss about this "innocent prank… I can be your best friend or your worst enemy. I can take away your lives with a stroke of my pen." The school was put on lockdown for the rest of the week.

Racial tensions remained high throughout the fall.

On the night of Thursday November 30, 2006, a still unsolved fire burned down the main academic building of Jena High School.

On Friday night, December 1, a black student who showed up at a white party was beaten by whites. On Saturday, December 2, a young white man pulled out a shotgun in a confrontation with young black men at the Gotta Go convenience store outside Jena before the men wrestled it away from him. The black men who took the shotgun away were later arrested, no charges were filed against the white man.

On Monday, December 4, at Jena High, a white student – who allegedly had been making racial taunts, including calling African American students “*****” while supporting the students who hung the nooses and who beat up the black student at the off-campus party – was knocked down, punched and kicked by black students. The white victim was taken to the hospital treated and released. He attended a social function that evening.

Six black Jena students were arrested and charged with attempted second-degree murder. All six were expelled from school.

The six charged were: 17-year-old Robert Bailey Junior whose bail was set at $138,000; 17-year-old Theo Shaw - bail $130,000; 18-year-old Carwin Jones – bail $100,000; 17-year-old Bryant Purvis – bail $70,000; 16 year old Mychal Bell, a sophomore in high school who was charged as an adult and for whom bail was set at $90,000; and a still unidentified minor.

Many of the young men, who came to be known as the Jena 6, stayed in jail for months. Few families could afford bond or private attorneys.

Mychal Bell remained in jail from December 2006 until his trial because his family was unable to post the $90,000 bond. Theo Shaw has also remained in jail. Several of the other defendants remained in jail for months until their families could raise sufficient money to put up bonds.

The Chicago Tribune wrote a powerful story headlined “Racial Demons Rear Heads.” The London Observer wrote: “Jena is gaining national notoriety as an example of the new ‘stealth’ racism, showing how lightly sleep the demons of racial prejudice in America’s Deep South, even in the year that a black man, Barak Obama, is a serious candidate for the White House.” The British Broadcasting Company aired a TV special report “Race Hate in Louisiana 2007.”

The Jena 6 and their families were put under substantial pressure to plead guilty. Mychal Bell was reported to have been leaning towards pleading guilty right up until his trial when he decided he would not plead guilty to a felony.

When it finally came, the trial of Mychal Bell was swift. Bell was represented by an appointed public defender.

On the morning of the trial, the DA reduced the charges from attempted second degree murder to second degree aggravated battery and conspiracy. Aggravated battery in Louisiana law demands the attack be with a dangerous weapon. The dangerous weapon? The prosecutor was allowed to argue to the jury that the tennis shoes worn by Bell could be considered a dangerous weapon used by “the gang of black boys” who beat the white victim.

Most shocking of all, when the pool of potential jurors was summoned, fifty people appeared – every single one white.

The LaSalle Parish clerk defended the all white group to the Alexandria Louisiana Town Talk newspaper saying that the jury pool was selected by computer. “The venire [panel of prospective jurors] is color blind. The idea is for the list to truly reflect the racial makeup of the community, but the system does not take race into factor.” Officials said they had summoned 150 people, but these were the only people who showed up.

The all-white jury, which was finally chosen, included two people friendly with the District Attorney, a relative of one of the witnesses and several others who were friends of prosecution witnesses.

Bell’s parents, Melissa Bell and Marcus Jones, were not even allowed to attend the trial despite their objections, because they were listed as potential witnesses. The white victim, though a witness, was allowed to stay in the courtroom. The parents, who had been widely quoted in the media as critics of the process, were also told they could no longer speak to the media as long as the trial was in session. Marcus Jones had told the media “It’s all about those nooses” and declared the charges racially motivated.

Other supporters who planned a demonstration in support of Bell were ordered by the court not to do so near the courthouse or anywhere the judge would see them.

The prosecutor called 17 witnesses - eleven white students, three white teachers, and two white nurses. Some said they saw Bell kick the victim, others said they did not see him do anything. The white victim testified that he did not know if Bell hit him or not.

The Chicago Tribune reported the public defender did not challenge the all-white jury pool, put on no evidence and called no witnesses. The public defender told the Alexandria Town talk after resting his case without calling any witnesses that he knew he would be second-guessed by many but was confident that the jury would return a verdict of not guilty. “I don’t believe race is an issue in this trial…I think I have a fair and impartial jury…”

The jury deliberated for less than three hours and found Mychal Bell guilty on the maximum possible charges of aggravated second degree battery and conspiracy. He faces up to a maximum of 22 years in prison.

The public defender told the press afterwards, “I feel I put on the best defense that I could.” Responding to criticism of not putting on any witnesses, the attorney said “why open the door for further accusations? I did the best I could for my client, Mychal Bell.”

At a rally in front of the courthouse the next day, Alan Bean, a Texas minister and leader of the Friends of Justice, said “I have seen a lot of trials in my time. And I have never seen a more distressing miscarriage of justice than what happened in LaSalle Parish yesterday.” Khadijah Rashad of Lafayette Louisiana described the trial as a “modern day lynching.”

Tory Pegram with the Louisiana ACLU has been working with the parents for months. “People know if they don't demand equal treatment now, they will never get it. People's jobs and livelihoods have been threatened for attending Jena 6 Defense meetings, but people are willing to risk that. One person told me: ‘We have to convince more people to come rally with us.....What's the worst that could happen? They fire us from our jobs? We have the worst jobs in the town anyway. They burn a cross on our lawns or burn down my house? All of that has happened to us before. We have to keep speaking out to make sure it doesn't happen to us again, or our children will never be safe.’"

Whites in the community were adamant that there is no racism. "We don't have a problem,” according to one. Other locals told the media "We all get along," and "most blacks are happy with the way things are." One person even said "We don't have many problems with our blacks."

Melvin Worthington, the lone African American school board member in LaSalle Parish said it all could have been avoided. “There’s no doubt about it,” he told the Chicago Tribune, “whites and blacks are treated differently here. The white kids should have gotten more punishment for hanging those nooses. If they had, all the stuff that followed could have been avoided.”

Hebert McCoy, a relative of one of the youths who has been trying to raise money for bail and lawyers, challenged people everywhere at the end of the rally when he said “You better get out of your houses. You better come out and defend your children…because they are incarcerating them by the thousands. Jena’s not the beginning, but Jena has crossed the line. Justice is not right when you put on the wrong charges and then convict. I believe in justice. I believe in the point of law. I believe in accepting the punishment if I’m guilty. If I’m guilty, convict me and punishment, but if I’m innocent, no justice…” and the crowd joined with him and shouted “no peace!”

What happened to the white guys? The white victim of the beating was later arrested for bringing a hunting rifle loaded with 13 bullets onto the high school campus and released on $5000 bond. The white man who beat up the black youth at the off-campus party was arrested and charged with simple battery. The white students who hung up the nooses in the “white tree” were never charged.

The people in Jena are fighting for justice and they need legal and financial help. Since the arrests, a group of family members have been holding well-attended meetings, and have created a defense fund – the Jena 6 Defense Committee. They have received support from the NAACP, the Louisiana ACLU and Friends of Justice. People interested in supporting can contact: the Jena 6 Defense Committee, PO Box 2798, Jena, LA 71342 jena6defense(at)gmail.com; Friends of Justice, 507 North Donley Avenue, Tulia, TX 79088 http://www.fojtulia.org; or the ACLU of Louisiana, PO Box 56157, New Orleans, LA 70156 http://www.laaclu.org or 417.350.0536.

What is next? The rest of the Jena 6 await similar trials. Theodore Shaw is due to go on trial shortly. Mychal Bell is scheduled to be sentenced July 31. If he gets the maximum sentence he will not be out of prison until he is nearly 40. Meanwhile, the “white tree” outside Jena High sits quietly in the hot sun.

[Midori]

free jena 6

+1

Black kids should have the right to gang beat a white kid for hereditary ignorance.

**** you dom whens the last time you heard a white kid getting sent to prison for an after school fight. I guess it doesn't matter that a group of white kids beat a up a black student during the same week and charges were never filed. Or that a guy can pull out a shotgun on a group of kids. i don't see how the mods keep ignoring your blatant racism....

Well Dom let me drop some knowledge for you because I feel you need it....

First Here is the Dr. Phil video XemnasXD was talking about:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=NjFN_jA1JPk
http://youtube.com/watch?v=yb-J21OIlGQ
http://youtube.com/watch?v=7UzChvGeVIM
http://youtube.com/watch?v=XSG6CJW3Aag
http://youtube.com/watch?v=sFo-yTi0L5I
http://youtube.com/watch?v=iOnhB2AP2OI
http://youtube.com/watch?v=NxoAFWxioUs
http://youtube.com/watch?v=fHXot1w9VDY

So Dom let me tell you what really happened because it seems to me you don't understand what really happened at Jena. The issue is that Mychael Bell and 5 other students were arrested for allegedly "jumping" a white guy named Justin Barker because they said he was yelling out racial remarks. Now I don't condone the people jumping Justin but I do want to point out that in this town a lot of racial segregation has been happening and maybe you haven't experienced racism before so you don't understand the severity of it but thats just my opinion. Anyways prior to this incident a black student asked permission from the school administrators to be able to sit under the tree and the school officials told them they were able to sit under the tree. Well unfortunately three white students hung nooses under the tree THE NEXT DAY. Now there are tons of incidents like and I will post them later but another one off the top of my head is that there was an altercation between a white student and a black student at Jena, then the white student went to his truck and got a shotgun and the black student wrestled the gun away from the white person and gave it to the police. What did the police do? They arrested the black student for STEALING THE SHOTGUN and the white student did not receive any charges. Well back to the issue (sorry about bouncing around) Now they charged Mychael Bell with attempt of murder and sent to jail as a 16 year old. The issue is that they charged him with an attempt of murder yet Justin Barker was only in the hospital for 2 - 3 hours...to me that is not murder but I mean I guess its about the severity of the wounds but nonetheless that to me is ridiculous and it is up for you to decide wether or not this trial is about racism wether if a 6 white men jumped a black man would the white people got to jail? Now Dom just read this and think about wether or not you think Jena was about 'Black kids should have the right to gang beat a white kid for hereditary ignorance."


Oh and further information about this I got on facebook:
Injustice in Jena, Louisiana as Nooses Hang from the White Tree
By Bill Quigley
Published on: July 10, 2007

In a small still mostly segregated section of rural Louisiana, an all white jury heard a series of white witnesses called by a white prosecutor testify in a courtroom overseen by a white judge in a trial of a fight at the local high school where a white student who had been making racial taunts was hit by black students. The fight was the culmination of a series of racial incidents starting when whites responded to black students sitting under the “white tree” at their school by hanging three nooses from the tree. The white jury and white prosecutor and all white supporters of the white victim were all on one side of the courtroom. The black defendant, 17-year-old Mychal Bell, and his supporters were on the other. The jury quickly convicted Mychal Bell of two felonies - aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery. Bell, who was a 16-year-old sophomore football star at the time he was arrested, faces up to 22 years in prison. Five other black youths await similar trials on attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy charges.

Yes, you read that correctly. The rest of the story, which is being reported across the world in papers in China, France and England, is just as chilling.

The trouble started under “the white tree” in front of Jena High School. The “white tree” is where the white students, 80% of the student body, would always sit during school breaks.

In September 2006, a black student at Jena high school asked permission from school administrators to sit under the “white tree.” School officials advised them to sit wherever they wanted. They did.

The next day, three nooses, in the school colors, were hanging from the “white tree.” The message was clear. “Those nooses meant the KKK, they meant ‘*****, we’re going to kill you, we’re going to hang you till you die,’” Casteptla Bailey, mom of one of the students, told the London Observer.

The Jena high school principal found that three white students were responsible and recommended expulsion. The white superintendent of schools over-ruled the principal and gave the students a three day suspension saying that the nooses were just a youthful stunt. “Adolescents play pranks,” the superintendent told the Chicago Tribune, “I don’t think it was a threat against anybody.”

The African-American community was hurt and upset. “Hanging those nooses was a hate crime, plain and simple,” according to Tracy Bowens, mother of students at Jena High.

But blacks in this area of Louisiana have little political power. The ten person all-male government of the parish has one African-American member. The nine member all-male school board has one African American member. (A phone caller to the local school board trying to find out the racial makeup of the school board was told there was one “colored” member of the board). There is one black police officer in Jena and two black public school teachers.

Jena, with a population of less than 3000, is the largest town in the parish (county) seat of LaSalle Parish, Louisiana. There are about 350 African Americans in the town. LaSalle has a population of just over 14,000 people - 12% African-American.

This is solid Bush and David Duke Country - GWB won LaSalle Parish 4 to 1 in the last two elections; Duke carried a majority of the white vote when he ran for Governor of Louisiana. Families earn about 60% of the national average. The Census Bureau reports that less than 10% of the businesses in LaSalle Parish are black owned.

Jena is the site of the infamous Juvenile Correctional Center for Youth that was forced to close its doors in 2000, only two years after opening, due to widespread brutality and racism including the choking of juveniles by guards after the youth met with a lawyer. The U.S. Department of Justice sued the private prison amid complaints that guards paid inmates to fight each other and laughed when teens tried to commit suicide.

Black students decided to resist and organized a sit-in under the “white tree” at the school to protest the light suspensions given to the noose-hanging white students.

The white District Attorney then came to Jena High with law enforcement officers to address a school assembly. According to testimony in a later motion in court, the DA reportedly threatened the black-protesting students saying that if they didn't stop making a fuss about this "innocent prank… I can be your best friend or your worst enemy. I can take away your lives with a stroke of my pen." The school was put on lockdown for the rest of the week.

Racial tensions remained high throughout the fall.

On the night of Thursday November 30, 2006, a still unsolved fire burned down the main academic building of Jena High School.

On Friday night, December 1, a black student who showed up at a white party was beaten by whites. On Saturday, December 2, a young white man pulled out a shotgun in a confrontation with young black men at the Gotta Go convenience store outside Jena before the men wrestled it away from him. The black men who took the shotgun away were later arrested, no charges were filed against the white man.

On Monday, December 4, at Jena High, a white student – who allegedly had been making racial taunts, including calling African American students “*****” while supporting the students who hung the nooses and who beat up the black student at the off-campus party – was knocked down, punched and kicked by black students. The white victim was taken to the hospital treated and released. He attended a social function that evening.

Six black Jena students were arrested and charged with attempted second-degree murder. All six were expelled from school.

The six charged were: 17-year-old Robert Bailey Junior whose bail was set at $138,000; 17-year-old Theo Shaw - bail $130,000; 18-year-old Carwin Jones – bail $100,000; 17-year-old Bryant Purvis – bail $70,000; 16 year old Mychal Bell, a sophomore in high school who was charged as an adult and for whom bail was set at $90,000; and a still unidentified minor.

Many of the young men, who came to be known as the Jena 6, stayed in jail for months. Few families could afford bond or private attorneys.

Mychal Bell remained in jail from December 2006 until his trial because his family was unable to post the $90,000 bond. Theo Shaw has also remained in jail. Several of the other defendants remained in jail for months until their families could raise sufficient money to put up bonds.

The Chicago Tribune wrote a powerful story headlined “Racial Demons Rear Heads.” The London Observer wrote: “Jena is gaining national notoriety as an example of the new ‘stealth’ racism, showing how lightly sleep the demons of racial prejudice in America’s Deep South, even in the year that a black man, Barak Obama, is a serious candidate for the White House.” The British Broadcasting Company aired a TV special report “Race Hate in Louisiana 2007.”

The Jena 6 and their families were put under substantial pressure to plead guilty. Mychal Bell was reported to have been leaning towards pleading guilty right up until his trial when he decided he would not plead guilty to a felony.

When it finally came, the trial of Mychal Bell was swift. Bell was represented by an appointed public defender.

On the morning of the trial, the DA reduced the charges from attempted second degree murder to second degree aggravated battery and conspiracy. Aggravated battery in Louisiana law demands the attack be with a dangerous weapon. The dangerous weapon? The prosecutor was allowed to argue to the jury that the tennis shoes worn by Bell could be considered a dangerous weapon used by “the gang of black boys” who beat the white victim.

Most shocking of all, when the pool of potential jurors was summoned, fifty people appeared – every single one white.

The LaSalle Parish clerk defended the all white group to the Alexandria Louisiana Town Talk newspaper saying that the jury pool was selected by computer. “The venire [panel of prospective jurors] is color blind. The idea is for the list to truly reflect the racial makeup of the community, but the system does not take race into factor.” Officials said they had summoned 150 people, but these were the only people who showed up.

The all-white jury, which was finally chosen, included two people friendly with the District Attorney, a relative of one of the witnesses and several others who were friends of prosecution witnesses.

Bell’s parents, Melissa Bell and Marcus Jones, were not even allowed to attend the trial despite their objections, because they were listed as potential witnesses. The white victim, though a witness, was allowed to stay in the courtroom. The parents, who had been widely quoted in the media as critics of the process, were also told they could no longer speak to the media as long as the trial was in session. Marcus Jones had told the media “It’s all about those nooses” and declared the charges racially motivated.

Other supporters who planned a demonstration in support of Bell were ordered by the court not to do so near the courthouse or anywhere the judge would see them.

The prosecutor called 17 witnesses - eleven white students, three white teachers, and two white nurses. Some said they saw Bell kick the victim, others said they did not see him do anything. The white victim testified that he did not know if Bell hit him or not.

The Chicago Tribune reported the public defender did not challenge the all-white jury pool, put on no evidence and called no witnesses. The public defender told the Alexandria Town talk after resting his case without calling any witnesses that he knew he would be second-guessed by many but was confident that the jury would return a verdict of not guilty. “I don’t believe race is an issue in this trial…I think I have a fair and impartial jury…”

The jury deliberated for less than three hours and found Mychal Bell guilty on the maximum possible charges of aggravated second degree battery and conspiracy. He faces up to a maximum of 22 years in prison.

The public defender told the press afterwards, “I feel I put on the best defense that I could.” Responding to criticism of not putting on any witnesses, the attorney said “why open the door for further accusations? I did the best I could for my client, Mychal Bell.”

At a rally in front of the courthouse the next day, Alan Bean, a Texas minister and leader of the Friends of Justice, said “I have seen a lot of trials in my time. And I have never seen a more distressing miscarriage of justice than what happened in LaSalle Parish yesterday.” Khadijah Rashad of Lafayette Louisiana described the trial as a “modern day lynching.”

Tory Pegram with the Louisiana ACLU has been working with the parents for months. “People know if they don't demand equal treatment now, they will never get it. People's jobs and livelihoods have been threatened for attending Jena 6 Defense meetings, but people are willing to risk that. One person told me: ‘We have to convince more people to come rally with us.....What's the worst that could happen? They fire us from our jobs? We have the worst jobs in the town anyway. They burn a cross on our lawns or burn down my house? All of that has happened to us before. We have to keep speaking out to make sure it doesn't happen to us again, or our children will never be safe.’"

Whites in the community were adamant that there is no racism. "We don't have a problem,” according to one. Other locals told the media "We all get along," and "most blacks are happy with the way things are." One person even said "We don't have many problems with our blacks."

Melvin Worthington, the lone African American school board member in LaSalle Parish said it all could have been avoided. “There’s no doubt about it,” he told the Chicago Tribune, “whites and blacks are treated differently here. The white kids should have gotten more punishment for hanging those nooses. If they had, all the stuff that followed could have been avoided.”

Hebert McCoy, a relative of one of the youths who has been trying to raise money for bail and lawyers, challenged people everywhere at the end of the rally when he said “You better get out of your houses. You better come out and defend your children…because they are incarcerating them by the thousands. Jena’s not the beginning, but Jena has crossed the line. Justice is not right when you put on the wrong charges and then convict. I believe in justice. I believe in the point of law. I believe in accepting the punishment if I’m guilty. If I’m guilty, convict me and punishment, but if I’m innocent, no justice…” and the crowd joined with him and shouted “no peace!”

What happened to the white guys? The white victim of the beating was later arrested for bringing a hunting rifle loaded with 13 bullets onto the high school campus and released on $5000 bond. The white man who beat up the black youth at the off-campus party was arrested and charged with simple battery. The white students who hung up the nooses in the “white tree” were never charged.

The people in Jena are fighting for justice and they need legal and financial help. Since the arrests, a group of family members have been holding well-attended meetings, and have created a defense fund – the Jena 6 Defense Committee. They have received support from the NAACP, the Louisiana ACLU and Friends of Justice. People interested in supporting can contact: the Jena 6 Defense Committee, PO Box 2798, Jena, LA 71342 jena6defense(at)gmail.com; Friends of Justice, 507 North Donley Avenue, Tulia, TX 79088 http://www.fojtulia.org; or the ACLU of Louisiana, PO Box 56157, New Orleans, LA 70156 http://www.laaclu.org or 417.350.0536.

What is next? The rest of the Jena 6 await similar trials. Theodore Shaw is due to go on trial shortly. Mychal Bell is scheduled to be sentenced July 31. If he gets the maximum sentence he will not be out of prison until he is nearly 40. Meanwhile, the “white tree” outside Jena High sits quietly in the hot sun.

umm, summary?

[Cruor]

umm, summary?

Was quoting that really necessary?